A summary of players

I'm a big advocate of Linux and BSD for security, but when it comes to offline things, like playing video files and DVD's, I am very pro-Mac OS PowerPC. To me, there is no better OS to play video on than Mac OS X, and especially on Tiger (10.4) and Leopard (10.5), which as I'm sure you all know were the last two Apple OS to support PowerPC.

All my life I have been a big user and collector of video since before I ever even used computers, but from 2002 on I have been willingly engulfed in digital video on Mac OS X. In all that time I have learned a thing or three about all the playback applications available, and the strengths and weaknesses of each. These are my findings.

VLC

VLC is the all-round most stable and capable player ever made available on any OS in my opinion. It's no MPlayer or CorePlayer in terms of CPU efficiency, but is still a lightweight compared to true resource hogs like Quicktime. I recommend you use 0.9.10 on Tiger, and 1.1.12 on Leopard. For Leopard users, the 2.xx versions are a bit more resource needy, and only worth running if you have a dual CPU system; because 2+ is more SMP optimized, but that is really the only true advantage. So Leopard single CPU users should stick to 1.1.12.

Strengths:

stable

most codec capable player

most tweak-able player (via its vast extended preferences)

the best audio and subtitle sync repair of any player

Weaknesses:

not as resource efficient as others

the expanded preferences can really overwhelm some

the "Media library" below the playlist is sketchy at best

MPlayer

MPlayer is much more a lean and raw player compared to VLC and others, but it's quite resource efficient, and scrubs through video in a truly beastly manner. There are various versions by various developers, but there are three versions that are very worth the HD space they use. Those three are comprised of two versions of MPlayer OSX (one optimized for G3 and one for G4), and the rev14 version of MPlayer OSX Extended (Tiger users need rev11), which is by far the best thrid-party real media player.

I have some very old real player formatted video I downloaded years ago, but would never install Real Player on any system of mine, nor should you, as it is spyware. VLC can play real media also, but it plays very jerky, and with lots of resources available. The extended version, while newer, is less efficient and has some interlacing issues, so I use it strictly for real media, and a combo of MPlayer OSX and VLC for everything else non-HD. Bottom line... use extended for real media only, and the regular OSX version for all your other MPlayer needs.

Strengths:

efficient all-round

scrubs/scans through video better and more aggressively than any other player

frame dropping feature to help it smoothly play video that is slightly beyond your systems capability

very effective disk cache option which will offer smooth playback from very slow media, like old CD-R

very simple and straight forward preferences (if that's what you prefer)

Weaknesses:

struggles with some audio and some x264

not anywhere near as codec capable as VLC

limited preferences/settings

only the "Extended" version is really usable on G5's

CorePlayer

Even though this cannot be bought any longer, it's worth covering for those that do have it, and to help others gain more perspective with it.

CorePlayer OSX is the absolute champion of resource efficiency, and is a master of x264 codec playback, but to be honest, that is where its good qualities end. The GUI is very sloppily put together, and just generally awkward to use, but not so bad that it's unusable; just clunky and oddball. I guess this is what happens when you port cellphone software to the desktop, but forget to make it more desktop functional. It also has little support for AC3 audio, or really any video wrapper that isn't AVI, MP4, M4V or MKV.

Strengths:

out of this world efficiency

a master at x264 playback

Weaknesses:

ugly as hell

clunky and awkward to use

limited codec support

most of the preferences do nothing in terms of producing noticeable results

lack of proper subtitle support

Quicktime

QT is the undisputed champion of bloat when it comes to playback apps. There is no other application that consumes more of your CPU than this one.

The only use I have for it is the editing feature in the pro version, which is actually quite simple and elegant, but still uses way too many resources.

Bottom line... don't use it to play video.

Strengths:

simple and elegant video editor (with $30 pro version)

Weaknesses:

bloated garbage for playback

next to no codec support without third-party codecs installed

Apple DVD Player

Even though you can play DVD's in VLC, this application is more efficient at it, and makes the experience much more like using a real DVD player on a TV. If you run Leopard, and have a CPU under 1GHz, then you should disable deinterlacing (in the "View" menu) for best results.

Since I cannot really find any weaknesses with this, I won't bother doing a strengths/weaknesses for it. It plays DVD's really well and efficiently, and that's all you really need to know.

Wrapper Roundup

It makes sense to end this with a list of video wrappers, and which players are best for each. Since this is all based on personal experience, I welcome any findings the readers have also.

When it comes to HD, there really is no choice but CorePlayer without a G4 1.2GHz+. A faster single G4 or dual 1GHz+ will play most 720p in VLC. You may struggle with any 60fps content though. As for 1080 without CorePlayer... thats more for later duals and quad G5's. On my single 1.8GHz G4 7448 I need CorePlayer to play 1080 smoothly. 60fps 720p h.264 is my limit without CorePlayer. G4 1.2-1.5GHz would be limited to 24-30fps 720p.

Anyway... that's about it for this summary. If you require any additional info, please ask in comments, or add any of your experiences with the apps and codecs above, or others not mentioned.

16 comments:

I've found XBMC 11 to be highly capable - whilst doing some testing, I found it to be more efficient than VLC and MPlayer - however, the results vary from machine to machine. It works exceptionally well on my 12" Powerbook, playing files MPlayer and VLC cant reach. I just wish it's playback engine could be detached from the huge media centre interface.

A big factor in video performance is framrate, and that file you link to is only 23.97fps, so it will play well. on any G4 of about 1.2GHz+.

The two videos I was testing were 60fps, so there would be a big gap in the performance of my files and the one you link to. It plays very well for me also, and on a G4 7448 1.8GHz in a Sawtooth.

The main things that dictate performance are codec, framerate and resolution, not bitrate like a lot think.

When it comes to just playing something and sitting back, I would be happy with XMBC. When I right click a file and open it with there is no interaction at all needed. I may just keep it around this time.

As for 1080p... maybe try XviD. It will look great at a high bitrate. Say 2000-3000kbps.

Do any players support HEVC / H.265? I know VLC and QuickTime do not have support, but MPlayer says version 15 should. I was unable to find MPlayer 15 for PowerPC.

I own a Quad G5 w/ a 7800 GTX 512, so playback performance should not be a problem. The files I am looking to play are 4K (3840x2160)@60FPS videos. That sounds excessive, but I have transcoded them to higher bitrate H.264 on a different computer and they played 100% flawlessly on the G5, in MPlayer and VLC.

I am looking to avoid wasting time transcoding and to save disk space by playing HEVC.

Unfortunately, there is no h.265 capable player available for PowerPC, but it would be quite pointless if it was.

The resource demands it puts on a system would challenge even a quad i7, so your quad G5 would feel like it was fighting a bear to play it. That resolution/framerate/codec combo you list would humble a lot of modern hardware.

VLC started supporting it at version 2.1.2, but the last Mac OS PowerPC version was 2.0.10. As for MPLayer... at least in the PowerPC days the versions above are from, is truly its own animal. They are also far too old of versions to support h.265.

The reality for you is that you need to embrace h.264. It looks amazing around 2000kbps, especially in two-pass encoding.

What are you using to encode video? IMO Handbrake rips the cleanest looking video. Its h.264 encoder is better than anything else I have ever used. I would honestly be shocked if anyone wasn't happy with 1080p h.264 ripped at 2000kb in Handbrake. That cuts your stated file sizes in half.

Seriously... if you have not tried Handbrake, you need to. I wouldn't use anything else to rip h.264. Also, h.264 will rip a lot faster anyway.

One of the main things I have leaned as a ripper of a lot of video, is that not all encoders are created equally. Two different applications that rip the same codec will rarely produce identical results quality-wise.

I am currently using iMac G4 (1.25, 768MB, 10.5.8) with CorePlayer and the results are pretty good with 720p. I still have around 400MB free RAM after launching the player (nothing else runs on this computer). Short question - would adding 512MB more RAM further improve the playback?

Quicktime is still great for use in conjunction with Clicktoplugin and Safari 5.x - or with QuicktimeEnabler on TenFourFoxIf you still need MplayerOsxExtended Rev.11 you can find it herehttps://code.google.com/archive/p/mplayerosxext/downloads?page=2